My wife and I have been taking the CrackAging TA-65 knockoffs, supposedly 98% pure Cycloastragenol/Astragaloside IV.

I feel good and my wife mentioned this morning that she feels "great". She has not noticed any change in her dreams, but I have, along the lines Ed Park mentions in the book. That was about the only thing - until last night.

Last night around 2 to 3 a.m. I got a headache? I never get headaches. Felt something like a caffeine withdrawal (which author Cherniske explains is because caffeine constricts the arteries and in the brain, when they start to relax they expand causing the pain.)

We are taking the C/A knockoffs before bed, as Dr. Park advises. Last night, we decided to give these expensive pills a rest. One night not taking them and I develop a headache. But not my wife.

I was supposed to meet with a well-to-do acquaintance yesterday who has been taking TA-65 and ask him some questions. That meeting is probably next week.

Owen R. Fonorow, Orthomolecular NaturopathMy statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Any product mentioned is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

We have decided, from various angles and lab analysis on the internet, that Cycloastragenol is the active molecule from the astralagus root that is extracted and the main ingredient in TA-65. Of course this is conjecture as they keep the actual ingredient secret.

In Ed Park's book Telomere Timebombs, he mentions various effects TA-65 has had on his patients, and we have noticed similar effects from only taking 10 mg Cycloastragenol according to Park's recommendation (take before bed rather than early in the morning.)

My wife has experienced the vivid dreaming, as I did almost from the beginning. This is become "natural" for us now.

I decided to post because we are now experiencing another effect that Park wrote about. Not sleeping.What is happening is that while we used to routinely sleep 10 hours, sometimes longer, (we might go to bed early as 8 p.m. and rise at 6 a.m)

Last week on four out of five days - I awoke and couldn't get back to sleep at 3 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. (despite my melatonin). Same thing has started happening to my wife, we seem to now only require 7 hours of sleep, and are fully rested afte 8 hours. Last night we stayed up until 9 p.m., but both of us still awoke at 4 p.m. We are not tired.

I am reporting this because it does provide evidence that Crack-Aging TA-65 knock-off (Cycloastragenol) is providing the same molecule has TA-65.

In the beginning I bought two (of the three) molecules found in TA-65. The other was called Astragaloside IV. But after learning that Cycloastragenol is probably the active ingredient (and that the body may convert Astragaloside to Cyclostragenol) we are now only taking Cyclostragenol. So these effects, dreaming and inability to sleep more than 7 or 8 hours are now from Cycloatragenol alone.

Owen R. Fonorow, Orthomolecular NaturopathMy statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Any product mentioned is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

Here is Johnwen's post that pointed us to cycloastragenol (found this in some unrelated topic).

johnwen wrote:Sorry Xor2 Had to throw this in!

OWEN said: Hoping to be able to afford TA65 soon

On the TA-65 bottles that I have been using, it clearly states as the sole ingredient:

"Astragalus Root Extract (TA65MD) 8mg"

The bottle does NOT state what that 8 mg is, and "Astragalus Root Extract" can mean anything extracted from the astragalus root...

The certified lab test showed what I stated earlier which is 5.44mg Cycloastragenol and .27 mg Astragaloside IV (lastly Astragenol at <.01mg). You can believe a lab test or a product lable with no "details" as to what comprises the 8mg, it is you choice. It seems good enough information for me to test out the Cycloastragenol.

Did a little snooping and came across this forum post on some anti ageing thingy. Turns out that expensive TA-65 stuff is the same as these products which are a bit much cheaper.

Owen R. Fonorow, Orthomolecular NaturopathMy statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Any product mentioned is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

Looking back, it looks like my wife and I started on January 20th. (Because of the bad blood tests, I don't have a telomere baseline until mid February). We switched to our liposomal (from the Cracking Aging cycloastragenol) when we received the early samples.

Per other posts, the most obvious thing that match's Ed Park's report has been sleeping and dreaming. For a while, we both woke up after 8 hours. Period. Wide awake. But lately, our sleep has extended back to 10 to 12 hours?

But the vivid dreams persist.

Last night I had an experience that may indicate my hearing is getting better. I heard a hum (that my wife could not hear) that was coming from some electronic equipment, i.e. either our satellite TV or DVD player. I finally had to pull the plugs to get to sleep. If the hum just started last night, means little, but if it has been there and neither of us heard it, that may indicate hearing restoration.

Owen R. Fonorow, Orthomolecular NaturopathMy statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Any product mentioned is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

My current dosage is approximately 100 mg per day of liposomal cycloastragenol (plus Alpha Lipoic Acid and Acetyl-L-cartnitine.) This is 10 servings per day of our new liposomal TrifecTA product, e.g. 4 in the a.m. two dissolved in my Cardio-C during that day, and 4 servings before bed. (My wife is on half that dosage)

We have 12 people (including myself and my wife) taking TrifecTA, and all subjects have had their baseline Life Length telomere tests. We will be posting most (if not all) of the Life Length baselines soon. Most people's baseline biological age is within a year or two of the chronological age, even one person who had taken a small (10 mg) dosage of TA-65 previously for a few months.

We are hoping to achieve the remarkable straight line decrease in 'critically short telomeres" shown on page 124 of Dr. Ed Park's Telomere Timebombs. This chart shows a dosage of 100 mg of TA-65, and over the course of about a year, Dr. Park's telomere lengths increased to those of a teenager!

As far as results and how I have been feeling. Well my hair has not yet turned black! And certain other personal criteria that I have been hoping for have not occurred. Now it is early as I see from this post, that we began a low dosage on January 20, so it has been approximately 3 months on cycloastragenol, but only a few weeks on the 10 servings or 100 mg daily.

We are keeping track of side effects which seem to be few and rather minor, although one woman has reported severe dehydration, or at least the increased need for water.

In my wife and my cases, we are experiencing the exact sleep pattern changes that Dr. Park describes in Telomere Timebombs. This gives me some confidence that we are taking at least part of what is in TA-65, but again, as of the moment, until we get our follow-up measurements, I have no way to know what may be happening to my critically short telomeres.

One positive note is that one of our male subjects, age 68, was not fairing well nor feeling well, and at one point feared that he might have cancer. After one week on TrifecTA he seemed like a new man. A very surprising turnaround which may of course be a coincidence.

We are hoping the upcoming test results will speak for themselves - given all the vagaries in telomere measurements.

Owen R. Fonorow, Orthomolecular NaturopathMy statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Any product mentioned is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

Reporting in (this copied from the long "why is my blood clumping" post.

I did get the Life Extension Reverse T3 number.

16.8 ng/l Range 9.2 - 24.1

Regarding how I feel, a few days ago I had a burst of energy, for no apparent reason, but maybe the thyroid is kicking in? I usually walk about 30 minutes - and then I am ready to sit down in the sun for awhile. That day, and it seems to be continuing, I walked 3 times as far as I usually do.. And didn't feel I had to stop.

Saw the endocrin yesterday, and she was happy as expected. My Hemoglobin A1C is 5.6. I had lost 10 lbs since my last visit.3 months ago (low carb diet?) The sore that wouldn't heal on my right foot is completely gone. Nothing is visible on the foot where it used to be (That could by the Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber treatment for the hernia wound last year)

So, knock on wood...

Then it occurred to me - there is another factor at play. I am participating in the Trifecta (Cycloastragenol) study at the highest daily dosage (100 mg - liposomal) in our study group. For me, this began at a much lower dosage back in February, but reach 100 mg when the product was delivered (I started on the samples we were given).

In Ed Park's case, his own telomeres required 5 years to extend to those of a teenager. We are betting that the dosage is important, and that we may be able to do it in a year. (However, even if I can't keep the group going, I'll keep myself going on this for years, as it obviously hasn't harmed me.)

Owen R. Fonorow, Orthomolecular NaturopathMy statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Any product mentioned is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

Per the TrifecTA study, my wife and I had our follow-up after 3-4 months - and her shortest telomeres lengthened greater than the +/- error given on the report. (Mine stayed the same, but I weigh more than my wife.)

The next follow-up will be at the end of August - and will include one lady with very short telomeres who increased her dosage (after seeing her first scores) to what I am now taking - 100 mg daily. So she weighs less and is now taking double the dosage. It will be interesting.

Here are some thing I think I have learned.

1. Telomerase is only active (as is all DNA repair) during the so-called S-phase (synthesis) of cell division where the DNA is copied. This may explain some of the delayed measurement response. Ordinary cells that are measured won't have longer telomeres unless they are the daughter cell of a cell division. In other words, having telomerase expressed (present) in a cell that hasn't divided is a noop.

2. Telomeres have been studied in microorganisms, plants, higher level organisms and humans, and all these experiments and findings point to the fact that telomerase is "recruited" via a series of proteins to the shortest telomeres in the cell. Telomerase preferentially elongates the shortest telomeres, which is why this effect is the focus of our study.

3. We have experienced almost all the effects that Ed. Park writes about in Telomere Timebombs, include the vivid dreaming, change in sleep patterns, etc. And then some, probably caused by the PLC (liposome material) and extra ingredients (additional effects, including increased libido)

4. I was hoping for more obvious signs of age reversal, such as hair darkening, but while I feel good, I don't notice any rejuvenation. And even with the Ames Acetyl-L-carnitine and alpha lipoic acid, this has not happened in six months. From my reading on telomeres, any experiments that show rejuvenation from lengthening telomeres only occurs when the telomeres are critically short. If medium telomeres are made longer, there is not much effect in the experiments, and I don't expect much of a rejuvenation effect. (There is an issue of gene expression suppressed by telomeres as they curl back over the DNA, so keeping them longer than 8000 KB appears now to be optimum.)

The objective is to extend life. To push out the crisis caused by short telomeres.

Owen R. Fonorow, Orthomolecular NaturopathMy statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Any product mentioned is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

During the exam, the eye doctor said that my "eyesight was better than last year"

Hmmmmm...

Owen R. Fonorow, Orthomolecular NaturopathMy statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Any product mentioned is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

I continued my high dosage consumption of TrifecTA containing Cycloastragenol, right up to my 3rd blood draw yesterday. Then I decided to pause and did not take my normal 4 servings just before bed.

And I woke at 2:00 a.m. wide awake and unable to go back to sleep. I have not had trouble sleeping, especially lately, on 10+ mgs of cycloastragenol, alpha lipoic acid and Acetyl-L-carnitine . (Early on, sleep disturbances were the most frequent thing we noticed, and are also are common in TA-65 users according to Ed Park's Telomere Timebombs.)

After several months, my wife started experiencing the runs, so we cut her dosage, and finally, about a week or two ago, we stopped her TrifecTA completely. (We think we have a handle on the runs that will be implemented in the next batch of TrifecTA).

She has been complaining of lethargy the past few days, extreme tiredness and I couldn't think of a reason. (She recently started natural thyroid). Last night it hit me, ALC and ALA are aimed at the mitrochondria - the cell's power plants.

p.s. the evidence

Owen R. Fonorow, Orthomolecular NaturopathMy statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Any product mentioned is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”